art doesn't save people's lives (but it can do other things instead)

This is a portrait of a young man I created back in 2006 for a Christian magazine. This young man, who loved mountains and nature, unfortunately lost his life too early to drugs.
When I initially created this image, the father of this man contacted me because he liked the image, and I sent him an enlarged color print to put up on his home wall.

While my assistant and I were organizing flat files a few months ago, among big piles of old work, I found the original b/w drawing. I thought of the father, but I couldn't find his contact. Then last week, he e-mailed me out of the blue, because he wanted to show me a drawing up on his new house. He said he made sure to hang the print so it is the first thing people see when entering the house. Thus I got his home address to FedEx him the drawing where it should belong.
This morning I got the most touching thank you message in my inbox. It really made my day.

I believe in power of art, and importance of it. At the same time, I always think of art as, "yeah, but it doesn't save anyone's lives" .
It doesn't, but art does certainly make our lives richer. At least, it's good to know that it does.